Disclaimer: Daddy’s been kind of on our backs (does buggin’ count!) for some time now, wanting us to get back on track on bloggin’ our cruise trip from back in (Nov?) 2021! Truth is, Didi and I have written in part our drafts but Daddy seemed to have misplaced it! So bummer, its been > 2 years so suffice to say it would be quite challenging now having to write retrospectively…
Nonetheless here we go…
Its smack in the middle of COVID and borders have been shut circa 18months.
Most folks are now up to speed and onto their 2nd jabs yet still no signs of borders reopening.
Still amidst that comes a glimmer of hope for cross-border travel!
Royal Caribbean along with another liner announce a cruise-to-nowhere, or what Daddy says, the closest to getting on an airplane – complete with passport/immigration control.
Passports in hand (good thing we checked our passport which at that point in time was already growing mouldy though still valid!), so here we come!
Pre voyage day we had to prebook activities and dining options, and not forgetting select the check-in slot which ran hourly. We think apart from the cabin classes (first and suites), it was fastest fingers first (i.e. you’d need to log in to the RC app couple of weeks prior to departure to select your choice slot – obviously the earlier the better given most popular activities get fully booked early.
Recall we’re still knee-deep in COVID mode so passengers were advised to arrive an hour earlier prior to their (designated), or selected check-in slots for pre-departure ART tests.
Oh hello, Royal Caribbean, what a mighty grand lady of the seas, here we come!
Daddy reminiscing his sea-faring days on the other grand ol’ dame, now supposedly converted to a hotel!
We opted for self-park (flat circa $50 payable on exit via self-pay ticket, else you risk paying in excess of an astronomical $500! see below), thinking hey we might be nice and early – no crowds! Until we found out we had to find our way to the concourse “bag drop off area” + check-in, which was by which time overflowing with passengers…
There was a system where you would drop off your bags, wave goodbye until you see them onboard (we find out they would be tagged and delivered directly to our cabins).
Once bag-free we take the elevator up (for 3rd/4th floor, and make a bee line and wait in queue to get ART swabs shoved up our nostrils. Once done, wait at the holding area for about 45-60mins and wait for your COVID negative results to be sent via MOH SMS.
One done we could proceed to the boarding gate (so airport-like!) and clear immigration.
Daddy did have some issues getting through immigration but glad that he eventually did!
Phew.
Ahoy mate! We head for the gangway and make our merry way onboard!
There was a reminder on the pitfalls and woes of problematic gambling. Actually the ship was big enough to explore without even stumbling onto the casino (Daddy says its somewhere near the adults-only pool/Solarium so that’s obviously off-bounds for the kiddos) – this seemed to be the differentiating factor between Royal Caribbean and the other cruise operator we were initially contemplating between – the latter touted as a floating casino with peripheral activities rather than a family entertainment cruise with a casino as one of the entertainment options!
Oh p.s. pro tip was to get on the ship’s WIFI (which was possible as soon as you get quayside waiting for the ART work completed) as early as you could to book out dining and activity slots.
By the time we get onboard, we were greeted with our cabin keycards, and we make a dash for our cabin which was located in the forward section of the ship (we had to walk around orientation of the main deck en route…).
Final dash to #148 – a family balcony deluxe (sorry guys no fancy suites with fancy dining options – Daddy thought there were more than enough standard dining options anyways without the need therefore for further topups!).
Pretty snug. Nice and cozy 3-nighter for the rest of our cruise.
We make our way for an early dinner (the RC is still alongside the Cruise Terminal and scheduled to depart only around 8pm.
We wave goodbye to the mainland and soak in a beautiful Singapore night skyline…
Have a stroll around the mighty huge ship while eventually finding our way to what would have been touted the most popular activity onboard – ‘ Bumper Cars!’ in the entertainment hub – with Playstations, pool, ping pong tables, foos ball and housed the Hot Dog stand!
We come back to our cabin with a turn-down service! Haven’t seen this in a while for sure!
The morning after Day#1!
The next couple of days were just a flurry of eat, play, watch, eat, watch play and Repeat.
A couple of noteworthy activities include, but not in cascading order of fun:
1. Movie Screening (Tom and Jerry!)
2. Northstar – paid tour up the observation deck/crane (Didi was a little sick at this point!)
3. iFLY by RipCord (checkout our separate post on this!)
4. Scavenger Hunt – some pix from this (and oh, by the way, we met our classmate Wei Zhe!)
5. Towel Making
6. Origami Folding & Pop-up Card Making…
7. Bumper Cars (we hear the arena could intermittently be converted to a laser tag arena though we didn’t see this during the duration of our cruise).
8. Foosball and XBox mania!
9. Adventure Ocean Kids Club? *meh*
10. Table tennis, and of course more eating!
Other random pix – cool elevator, and more dining (WindJammer is by far our favorite and more popular as an all-day family dining option)…
On the final night Daddy and Mummy let us stay up later –
After dinner we head to the pool, couldn’t miss night swimming on a cruise (not many were there guess they had other stuff they wanted done before the cruise was over!)
Later in the evening we find out there was a Magic Show – Busters? He was quite a class act – juggling, balancing + juggling, and even had a sidekick Donkey who literally made an ass of him!?
The final morning we get up mighty early – apparently there were staggered check-out slots depending on cabin numbers (yeah right, more like cabin classes)… so we had an early breakkie and watch as our cruise ship glides back into the cruise terminal.
The whopping $514 parking fee had it not been for the park and sail coupon…
At the end of the day, keep calm and just smile!
